Category: Motorsports

Jenson Button has claimed a fairy tale victory for BrawnGP in their debut race at the 2009 Australian Grand Prix. Completing the dream start for F1’s newest team was a late race crash between Red Bull Racing’s Sebastien Vettel and BMW Sauber’s Robert Kubica, gifting second place to Rubens Barichello. The one-two podium finish for the BrawnGP cars follows their front row qualifying positions and is an astonishing result for a team that is barely three weeks old.

Toyota’s Jarno Trulli claimed third place, another remarkable result after starting the race from pit lane. (See below!)

Barichello, though, could consider himself the luckiest driver on the podium after a poor start shortly before crashing into Australia’s Mark Webber. The local hero was able to continue, but his chances were dashed after suffering damage to his car’s body work courtesy of Barichello’s contact. Rubens wasn’t done yet, as he also made unncessary contact with Ferrari’s Kimi Raikonnen. Lady luck, then, was clearly shining on the BrawnGP team in Melbourne.

However, Button’s second Formula One race win remains under a cloud of controversy due to “diffuser-gate“. The race results will not be ratified until the outcome of an FIA hearing to be held on 14 April is announced. Read more on this story at the BBC website.

UPDATE: Jarno Trulli has been given a 25 second penalty for overtaking under Safety Car conditions. This puts Trulli back to 12th place and moves Lewis Hamilton up to third.
[Source: Formula1.com]

Brawn GP have brought their strong pre-season testing form to Melbourne. The front row for tomorrow’s race will be an all Brawn GP affair. Teammates Jenson Button and Rubens Barichello traded fastest lap times throughout qualifying before the Briton claimed pole position.

In further good news to Formula One’s newest team, a new sponsorship deal has been announced with Virgin.

Team Principal Ross Brawn said, “On behalf of the Brawn GP team, we are delighted to have signed a partnership agreement with Sir Richard and Virgin in Melbourne today. An exciting debut race weekend for our team has become even more important as we have secured our second commercial agreement of the season. We look forward to working closely with the Virgin Group and sharing our on-track successes.”

The cars had minimal Virgin branding during qualifying and rumour has it the cars are getting a lick of paint as we speak and may well take to the grid tomorrow in full Virgin clothing.

The full grid for the 2009 Australian Grand Prix can be viewed at Formula1.com.

UPDATE 29 March: As you can see above from the image of Rubens Barichello lining up on the grid, the Brawn GP cars are still in their predominantly white livery. So, if we don’t see a new look next weekend in Malaysia, then expect a new lick of paint for China (17-19 April).

Last week news emerged that the 2009 Formula One driver’s title would be decided by the driver with the most number of wins, irrespective of points scored. It did seem a bit odd that this decision was announced so close to the start of a new season. It was odd for a few other reasons too, but now it doesn’t matter as the F1 teams have spoken as one and had the idea shelved until the 2010 season, at least.

In a classic case of he-said-she-said it is understood that the FIA was told the teams were in agreement with the ‘winner takes all’ plans only to later find out this was not actually the case. Brilliant management there!

The full statement from the FIA:
“On 17 March, the FIA World Motor Sport Council unanimously rejected FOTA’s proposed amendment to the points system for the Formula One Drivers’ Championship. The ‘winner takes all’ proposal made by the commercial rights holder (who had been told that the teams were in favour) was then approved.

“If, for any reason, the Formula One teams do not now agree with the new system, its implementation will be deferred until 2010.”

[ Source: Formula1.com ]